I know I've been a bit rubbish with the posts but I would like to say a huge thank you to those who still follow or support this blog and myself with everything I do, sometimes things can get on top of me and the last thing I need is another job on the pile. the blog sadly has been under maintained because quiet frankly I just haven't had the time, but I'm here with an update so on to the blog:
The eggs we have had have not been doing well at all.... that is to say the eggs are making it to tadpoles but the tadpoles are either failing or are morphing with SLS. Its been a real tough couple of months what with work getting busier and things going on here. I have had discussions with several people from within the community of poison dart frog keepers both in the UK and Europe and the ONLY thing we have come up with is that the tap water down here must be having a detrimental effect on the tadpoles. I have lost a lot of them this year and at one point I almost gave it all up. The tads have either never started feeding or have developed mouth fungus. The tads that have made it to morphing have morphed with SLS.
I have now changed the system for raising tads again and am hoping a simplistic approach will be better than all the new fangled stuff I've been trying. I now keep the tads individually in small amounts of rainwater, each tadpole has it's own oak leaf which hopefully is adding beneficial tannins to the water.
Since stripping it right back to the basics I have not lost a single tadpole but at the same time the tinctorius pairs that I have have almost stopped breeding altogether. The Leucomelas are doing well and both female are laying every 2 weeks or so and the tricolors are just beginning to lay fairly large fertile clutches but its early days for them so we are still waiting on some tadpoles or transportation or both. We currently have 3 Tinc powder blue tads who are just forming their back legs, 1 Ole Marie tad who is still just a large tad, 2 Cobalt tads who have both back legs and should be popping their front legs soon and 2 clutches of Leuc eggs that I pulled recently, not to mention a clutch from the Ole Marie within the last couple of days.
In other ruraljungle news I'm sorry to report the death of our eldest female Yemen chameleon Nyx, who as you may remember I only bought at the creaks Kidderminster show this time last year. While it is sad it also leaves the way a bit clearer so that I can either get another female for the breeding project or leaves a space for my offspring to be grown on next year. I do feel however that it highlights the fact that sometimes there are risks involved when buying adult animals. Sometimes you get first class, well cared for beasties or in this case you get an old, past breeding, sub par quality specimen. Don't get me wrong I loved her as I love all my animals but I do feel I resented her for taking up food and space that could have gone on an animal that would have contributed back by now. None of this was her fault and I have reflected a lot on my decision to buy her, I bought her for the wrong reasons but in the end was hopefully able to give her a happy life until the end. R.I.P Nyx
